The Prof Is In

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Re: changing stuttering patterns

From: Vivian Sisskin
Date: 19 Oct 2009
Time: 23:05:42 -0500
Remote Name: 74.96.111.58

Comments

Hi Charlton, Your question is very interesting. What is actually holding you back? Or better, why are you holding back? Fear certainly is one possibility, as fear has a wide variety of physical correlates including increased heart rate, tension, sweating, etc. Being “frozen from fear” is sometimes the way people talk about it. However, there are other possibilities that you have touched on. Many PWS experience severe blocks even in their lowest feared situations! Sometimes the holding back can be from habit, that is, holding back is a learned reactive strategy that has not only been practiced for years but has been reinforced by it’s ability to allow the person to avoid (postpone) showing the kind of “noisy” stuttering that they do not want to show. While it is not very effective at truly hiding the stuttering, that doesn’t matter. It might have worked at one time, even a long time ago. I find that blocks can be changed into more forward moving forms of disfluency. This is a choice that the PWS can make by choosing to show the thing they are trying to hide, noisy (or “ugly”, or however the person characterizes the stuff they don’t want to show) stuttering. Of course, not easy without adequate support and guidance, but certainly very do-able. This choice may be a difficult one, but once made (with trusted listeners) the PWS slowly becomes desensitized to the “ugly” stuttering, which leads to less struggled, comfortable disfluency. You might try a cognitive strategy to help: Prepare yourself mentally to experience “ugly” (or however you characterize the stuff you don’t want to show) stuttering and tolerate it! This tolerance may lead to acceptance and end the contention, and the accompanying struggle!


Last changed: 10/23/09